Bevel gears are used in different applications for redirecting driving forces. An example of a bevel gear is a differential. In many vehicles, differentials, e.g., are used as bevel gears. Large forces often act on differentials, which can be the case especially with differentials for heavy vehicles (e.g. trucks). These large forces can occur in particular in a pinion bearing for supporting the driveshaft. The driveshaft drives a drive pinion which drives a ring gear of the differential. Using the ring gear, output shafts can be driven via further transmission elements. In many conventional differentials a support bearing is used on one axial shaft end in order to support the large forces in the pinion bearing. Thus in some differentials the problem arises that the supporting of the driveshaft is overdetermined. The pinion bearing often comprises an assembly of two main bearings which mutually support each other. The pinion bearing itself is statically determinate. For example, the pinion bearing can comprise two tapered bearings in an O-arrangement. It can also be that the two main bearings of the pinion shaft or driveshaft determine the axis of rotation of the driveshaft. The support bearing can be installed in the housing such that it is not aligned with this axis of rotation, for example, due to manufacturing errors. As a result, forces can arise in the support bearing and in the pinion bearing.
Therefore in some conventional differentials an increased bearing clearance is provided for the support bearing. In some applications this bearing clearance can largely eliminate the alignment problem and the occurrence of constraining forces. However, in some circumstances, the providing of an increased bearing clearance in the support bearing can also lead to a loading of only some rolling elements. But, in some cases this situation of an unequal load distribution can easily lead to an overloading of the support bearing. For example, a premature wear of the rolling elements or of the raceways can occur. This effect is undesirable and may lead to increased maintenance costs of the transmission. In other conventional bevel gear bearings, similar forces can arise in the pinion bearing.